Career criminal ordered to pay back just £1

Michael Long is currently serving a four-year sentence in HMP Highdown

Share

A career criminal asked to pay £73,000 out of the proceeds of his crimes got away with paying just £1.

Michael Long, 35, formerly of Mead Close, Caversham, and currently serving a four-year sentence in HMP Highdown, claimed prosecutors could not prove he had the money.

Long appeared at Reading Crown Court on Friday, August 5, for his second confiscation hearing.

The Crown had an order to say he had had the benefit of around £93,000 from the proceeds of his crimes, and it believed he had £115,000 of “hidden assets” he could use to pay the bill.

Following the enforced sale of his home he had already paid £20,000, but still owed £73,000.

The court heard that Long had been to London in 2007 with his children to see Father Christmas, and had gone into a bureau de change to change 100 euros, providing a driver’s licence and bank card as ID, which were copied in a fax machine.

The bank card was new, unsigned and not yet valid, and was for a business account called Crimestoppers.

He had intended to become a ‘burglary consultant’ but the business never got off the ground and he never used the card, the court heard.

The court then heard that the now valid bank card was used at the same bureau de change in January 2008 in a transaction in which £115,000 was exchanged for 152,375 euros – or the other way around – the document was unclear.

But Long said he had been the victim of identity fraud and said he had asked the prosecution to prove he made the second transaction by producing original documents, fingerprinting and DNA testing them or producing CCTV footage.

Long readily admitted changing his name seven times and having 120 previous convictions and said: “I have been a criminal for 20 years.”

Mr Cleeve said: “You are a very accomplished liar, aren’t you?” to which Long replied: “Yes.”

“And you are lying now,” Mr Cleeve added.

But Long said: “I think the evidence speaks for itself in this case.”

Judge Stephen John ultimately sided with Long, citing his argument that if he were in possession of a sum of £115,000, why, soon after the time of the alleged transaction, was he arrested for attempting to steal cigarettes and alcohol from a service station and shoplifting £15 worth of DIY materials from B&Q?

The judge made a confiscation order of just £1.

Long was jailed for crimes including a joint enterprise stealing three Bentleys worth £375,000 from Pangbourne in July 2008, four counts of fraud and handling stolen goods.